


never such a blizzard before

by brahe



Series: brahe's 2017 advent bingo [20]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Action/Adventure, Blizzards & Snowstorms, Family Bonding, Gen, Grunkle Ford's Portal Adventures, Inuit Mythology - Freeform, Monster of the Week, Monsters, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Protective Grunkle Stan, Sibling Bonding, ac2017, adventchallenge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-18 08:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13096470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brahe/pseuds/brahe
Summary: “Dipper,” Ford says, “do you know what today is?"“Um, Thursday?”“It’s the winter solstice! The shortest day of the year, and, according to some old mythology I’ve been reading, the day of peak activity for the ijirait."Dipper blinks."No way!" Mabel half-cheers, then frowns. "The what?"





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> so bc I'm great at this, I decided to do a monster of the week fic for the prompt "smells like snow"  
> I don't have time to finish both chapters rn, so here's the intro, and the rest will be up sometime after Christmas.  
> Title from "baby it's cold outside"

Oregon is much colder than California in the week leading up to Christmas. The ground has been covered in white since they arrived, the evergreens snow-dusted and the mountains around the valley capped with snow. Mabel refuses to go outside in anything less than three sweaters and a hat, but she also refuses to stay inside while there’s snow on the ground, so Stan has to drag her back in periodically to thaw out and return feeling to her limbs.

She’s already been outside for hours by the time Dipper wakes up and heads downstairs. Stan’s made hot chocolate and pancakes, and Dipper happily takes both.

“Dipper,” Ford says, “do you know what today is?"

“Um, Thursday?”

“It’s the winter solstice! The shortest day of the year, and, according to some old mythology I’ve been reading, the day of peak activity for the ijirait."

Dipper blinks. He loves Ford, really, and getting to help him study the oddities of Gravity Falls is more than he could have ever asked for, but it’s not even ten o’clock.

“The what?” Mabel asks. Ford pulls the newest journal out of his coat and lays it on the table, open to the most recent entry.

“The ijirait,” he repeats. “An ancient Inuit legend."

“In Oregon?” Stan asks, setting a plate of food in front of Ford, who digs in immediately.

“It’s strange,” Ford agrees, “but not the strangest thing we’ve encountered here.”

That’s certainly true. “What are they?” Dipper asks.

“They’re ghost-like shape-shifters,” Ford says. "They're very territorial, and often sabotage those who wander onto their lands. Observing them directly is incredibly difficult."

"Monster hunt!" Mabel exclaims, sounding much more excited than she should.

"In this weather? Are you crazy?" Stan gestures to the snowscape outside the window. "It looks like it's going to snow any minute, and I'll bet the wind's gonna pick up, too."

"That's ridiculous," Ford says. "According to my calculations..." 

" _My_ calculations say it's a bad idea. I don't want to get stuck in a blizzard tracking down some freaky snow monster."

"Come on, Grunkle Stan," Mabel pleads. "It'll be fun! Right, Dipper?" 

Three sets of eyes fall on him. He squashes down the part of him what wants to eat another dozen pancakes and roll back into bed, throws himself back into the mindset of last summer.

"Yeah, Grunkle Stan! We gotta go find them!"

"Why?" Stan asks, although it's mostly rhetorical. He already sounds resigned, given in to his fate. "We don't have to document every single weird thing about this town."

"Yes we do," Dipper says, hopping down from the chair after Mabel and following her upstairs to get dressed.

"Wear layers!" Stan yells up the stairs at them. Ford claps a hand on his shoulder.

"It'll be great," Ford says. "Nice family bonding, some more research, a day in the snow..."

"We'll see," Stan grumbles, and when Ford heads to his room to change, Stan yells after him, too,

"There's extra jackets in the hall closet!"

 

Mabel's got two extra sweaters in her bag, and Dipper's got on three jackets and the hat Wendy gave him at the end of the summer, fur lined and falling over his ears. Stan has two scarves wrapped about him, beanie pulled down low on his head, sleeves of a sweater sticking back his jacket. They wait for Ford by the front door as Stan checks over the kids' bags.

"Water?"

"Yes."

"Snacks?"

Mabel pulls out granola bars and fruit gummies. "Check and check."

"Flashlight?" 

"Yep." 

"Walkie-talkies?" 

"Affirmative, over."

"Blankets?"

"Yes."

"Extra jackets?"

"How many am I supposed to wear, Grunkle Stan?" Dipper asks. Stan holds his hands up.

"I just want you kids staying warm out there." He looks at the sky. "Ford might say it won't snow, but just you wait..."

Ford appears, then, and Stan nearly has a heart attack. He's wearing the same sweater and jacket combo he always does.

"Ford, what on earth are you thinking? You can't go out like that!"

Ford looks at his outfit, confused. "Yes I can."

"You'll freeze to death," Stan argues. Ford shrugs.

"This is hardly the coldest temperature I've dealt with," he says. "Not even that close." He doesn't offer any more information than that, as usual when he mentions his life in the portal. It's not very often and never very detailed, and while Dipper's beyond curious, he's afraid to ask about it, for both Stan and Ford's sake.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> turns out this is gonna be three chapters ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

The sky is a clear blue when they set out from the Shack, snow crunching underfoot and wind infrequent but chilling. Ford leads them into the woods behind the house, and they weave between trees and over a few frozen streams for nearly two hours before Mabel starts asking for a snack break.

“You just ate,” Ford tells her.

“Yeah, like three hours ago!” she exclaims. Stan gives Ford a pointed look.

“We can stop for a little while,” Stan says. Mabel immediately sits on a fallen log not too far from where Stan and Ford have started arguing over a map, and Dipper follows her.

“Granola bar?” she offers.

“Thanks.”

They eat in silence for a few moments.

“Do you think we’re really gonna find these ir - ijirait things?” Mabel asks. Dipper shrugs.

“They sound pretty shy,” he says. “I don’t think I’ll be surprised either way. This doesn’t even really come close to some of the things from last summer.”

“Like the zombies. Those guys were kinda scary,” Mabel says, laughs a little, knocks her shoulder against Dipper’s. Dipper laughs.

“Oh man, or the - wait, did you see that?”

He whips around, peers into the woods behind them. A fog has appeared, rolling around their ankles and the trunks of the trees, and the sky has turned a dark grey.

“See what?” Mabel asks, looking around, too.

“I thought - I don’t know, I thought I saw something,” Dipper shakes his head.

Mabel regards the woods for a moment longer. “Grunkle Ford said they were hard to see,” she says.

“I don’t know if it was one or not,” Dipper tells her, looks at the sky. “Looks like snow. I guess Grunkle Stan was right.”

Except, when he turns back to Mabel, there’s only her backpack and an imprint the snow. “Mabel?” he shouts, looks around quickly. “Mabel!”

“Dipper?” comes Grunkle Stan from somewhere in front of him; the fog that had only been a few inches off the ground has now swelled to the branches of the trees around him. “What’s going on?”

Dipper peers into the mist. “Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Ford! Mabel!”

 

The forest falls silence after that, and Stan looks warily at Ford. The fog is thinner around them, but it thickens into the trees. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Ford,” Stan says. Ford looks around.

“This fog is rather mysterious,” Ford says.

“It came out of nowhere!” Stan exclaims. “And now we can’t find the kids.”

Ford points to the snow. “Look,” he says, “there’s footsteps.”

Sure enough, the gentle flurries now falling from the sky have yet to cover up two sets of footsteps that look like they could be Dipper and Mabel’s. Stan hoists his back higher on his shoulder.

“Let’s go, then,” he says, and Ford follows half a step behind him as they follow the tracks, ending a fallen log a few paces away. Mabel’s bag is resting against it, and there’s packed snow indicating where the kids must have been sitting.

“There’s no more footsteps,” Ford says, checking around the other side of the log. “It’s like they just - "

“No,” Stan cuts him off, shaking his head. “They’ve got to be here.”

Something moving in the corner of his eye grabs his attention, and he turns quickly to catch it, only to find it gone.

“What is it?” Ford asks, peering around in the direction Stan’s looking.

Stan shakes his head. “Nothing, I - I just thought I saw something.”

Ford grabs his shoulders. “Stanley! It’s the ijirait! It has to be!”

“Your Inuit monsters?” Stan frowns, but Ford’s on the take already.

“They’re very territorial, and they’d mess with adults that trespassed on their land, but some legends say that they would take children and hide them away, not letting them go unless the children convinced it to, or just leaving them lost somewhere.”

“These things have Dipper and Mabel?” Stan nearly exclaims, and Ford holds up his hands.

“We’ll find them,” he tells Stan. “Don’t worry.”

There’s movement at the edge of the clearing again, and this time they both turn to see. Only to be greeted by nothing but trees and fog.

Stan’s rapidly losing his temper, but Ford seems rather thrilled.

“I’ll have to see one to be sure,” Ford says, “but it really seems like we’ve…”

 

The forest is quiet again.

 

 

 

Dipper comes around with a soft groan, blinking until the blur before his eyes materializes into a rocky cave. He bolts upright, sitting to quickly, and holding his head as his vision blacks out from the blood rush.

“Mabel?” he asks, keeping his voice low.

“Dipper? Are you awake?”

He turns, finds Mabel sitting not too far from his side, knees to her chest and arms wrapped around them.

“Where are we?” he asks, and she shrugs.

“I’m not sure. I think on a mountain. It’s snowing though, so I can’t see very far.”

She gestures to the opening of the cave where a steady stream of thick snowfall has made anything further than a few feet into a nebulous grey blob.

Dipper pulls himself to where Mabel’s sitting, leans against the cold rock next to her.

“Did you see what it looks it?” he asks her. She shakes her head.

“I caught the back of it leaving the cave when I woke up,” she tells him. “It looked kinda like a tall skinny person, but with antlers.”

Dipper frowns.

“Do you think it’s going to come back?” Mabel asks him. Dipper thinks for a moment. They don’t really have much knowledge about these creatures, and he has no idea why they were taken. Given Mabel’s description, he’s hopeful that they won’t be eaten - at least, outright.

“I don’t know,” he answers honestly. “If we can figure out where we are, we might be able to escape before it does.”

“How are we going to do that?”

Dipper looks out at the snow. “I have no idea.”

 


End file.
